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Cat with...ahem, interesting dominance behavior

So. We added another kitty to the household two months ago. He's fit in very well with the other three and we have much kitty harmony and happiness.

But.

Since he's arrived, one of the others has begun to exhibit a rather interesting dominance behavior. To put it bluntly, he's started humping his brothers. (...sorry, I do find it amusing.)

The three boys are Oliver, age four, Bodie, age three, and the newest kitty, Louie. He's a year and a half old. All three are neutered and have been since they were kittens. (We also have Sadie, who is older...she tolerates the boys but doesn't have much to do with them or them with her).

Since Louie's arrival, I've caught Bodie "in position" () a few times, but I didn't see the actual humping until this past weekend. I was getting ready to go to bed, and Bodie and Louie were lying on the bed next to each other sleeping. The next thing I see is Bodie putting his paws on Louie's back and...away he goes. He stopped and started a few times. Louie ignored it at first (he was like, WTF, mate??? ) then rolled over and stopped him from continuing.

The next night, same thing happened but it was Oliver and Bodie sleeping on the bed, and then Bodie having sexy time on Oliver. I don't think that either Louie or Oliver have any clue about what Bodie's doing. To be clear here, there is no penetration or ejaculation or anything else...just the humping. He's not even in the correct position, just putting his paws on their backs and pushing against their sides or the bed.

From what I've been reading online, this is a dominance behavior seen in neutered males mainly when they're feeling insecure, which I'm sure is what has happened since Louie's arrival. I've been making sure to give Bodie plenty of attention and loving (no pun intended ).

I guess my question is, do I let him continue with this behavior? Or do I stop him when I see it? Anybody else had a fixed boy that suddenly decided to go all romantic and touchy feely? Any suggestions?

I have a neutered male cat that does this to the youngest cat in our house. Mine doesn't actually hump him but he gets in the position and bites the back of his neck like a mother cat would do when carrying a kitten. He is jealous of Baxter and he does this on occasion. We of course get after him but he does it alot of the time when we aren't in the room. We can tell he has done it when the back of Baxter's neck is wet.

I have the opposite problem. I have a randy fixed male who has FIV, blood work is horrendous due to this, looking at him though you would never know. He doesn't clean himself well and as a result became matted over the summer and needed to be shaved. He was feeling mighty fine after that and has started trying to make sweet love to none other than me! Because he's doing this to me I know exactly what he's looking for with a certain face he makes so I'm able to stop it before it starts. Typically if you just interrupt them they go about and do something else, he may stop though once everyone settles in more. Good luck though, it's not a problem most people expect to have with cats!

The one good thing about repeating your mistakes is that you know when to cringe.

I don't really have any advice.. but I wanted to share a little story relating to this.

My kitty cat had this behavior, but he wasn't fixed (Too young, had to wait till he was a year old) Only he had his "Lover" which was a Monkey Puppet. He would pick up the monkey (Which we now call the love monkey) and drag him to where-ever everyone was and 'love' the Monkey.

Once he was fixed he slowed down and eventually stopped, but he still drags that monkey everywhere and likes to cuddle up with it. It's a total riot watching him drag the Monkey through the cat door into the bedroom. (He won't let anyone help, he gets mad and yowls if you get close to the monkey while he is dragging him around)

I have the opposite problem. I have a randy fixed male who has FIV, blood work is horrendous due to this, looking at him though you would never know. He doesn't clean himself well and as a result became matted over the summer and needed to be shaved. He was feeling mighty fine after that and has started trying to make sweet love to none other than me! Because he's doing this to me I know exactly what he's looking for with a certain face he makes so I'm able to stop it before it starts. Typically if you just interrupt them they go about and do something else, he may stop though once everyone settles in more. Good luck though, it's not a problem most people expect to have with cats!

You got raped by an FIV-positive shaved cat who gave you the googly eye first?

This is very common. Small dogs will do it to cats too. Eventually I think it becomes more habit than acting out dominance. If the submissive cats don't seem to mind, I'd just let it go. Cats have their own way of working out territory disputes, pecking order, etc. It may seem odd to us but it works for them.

I will also add that my ragdoll was discovered to by a cryptorchid when he randomly began doing the deed (and I mean doing it, not just going through the motions) with pillows. But it's very different than dominance humping. Poor pillows!

I had a guy that was on the bottom of the pecking order do it to the alpha male, and Alpha allowed it! He slowed down when he got older but I was just shocked that the boss put up with it. I took it as some sort of Alpha/Omega type thing going on.

I will also add that my ragdoll was discovered to by a cryptorchid when he randomly began doing the deed (and I mean doing it, not just going through the motions) with pillows. But it's very different than dominance humping. Poor pillows!

I don't believe it has anything to do with "dominance". Most frequently, it appears to be a "self-soothing" behavior, so you'll see the Humpee doing it whenever things get exciting or the Humpee gets stressed about something- kind of like a child sucking on its thumb. Therefore the WRONG reaction is to increase the stress levels by trying to discipline the Humpee; instead, if you don't like it, you should gently re-direct the Humpee to an alternative soothing behavior, and then in future try to reduce the excitement level/ anxiety level of the Humpee before the Humpee breaks out in Humping.

My 65 lb female Aussie (spayed) does it to my 17 lb neutered tom cat. I just tell her to cut it out and she looks embarassed and goes away. I've been told it's dominent behavior, too. The dog is submissive to all people and most other dogs. Maybe this is just her way of being in charge of somebody!

My cat Sage does this once in a great while to our other cat Vincent. They play all the time, wrestling and games of chasing each other all through the house. About once a month or so Sage will "mount" Vince and bite his neck. He sort of lines himself up and then gets this look on his face that is priceless, WTF am I doing this for? He just shakes it off and stops. He's fixed so I think he has no clue what he's doing he just gets "urges" with his dominance dance.

Our oldest barn cat Fog does this to the lowest two kitties on the barn kitty totem. One is low because he's the baby of the bunch; the other is just shy. All neutered males. We only have one spayed female barn kitty and the males FIGHT with her. Hump each other, fight with Gabby. I don't pretend to understand. I do tell Bond and Wylie (Fog's humpees) that they have my permission to belt him if he goes over the line. No belting has occurred as of yet.

Arrange whatever pieces come your way. - Virginia Woolf

Did you know that if you say the word "GULLIBLE" really softly, it sounds like "ORANGES"?